“Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain,” by Portia de Rossi

Reading this book was a total skew from the genre of books I normally read. What brought me to read this book was more of a general interest in how the author, Portia de Rossi, overcame two very strong concepts in her upbringing that she had to learn to accept in her life.

Before I chose to read this book, I read reviews on the book itself. The reviews were either good or poor, nothing really in the middle. I chose to go by the reviews that gave a good light on this book and now that I’ve finished reading it, I’m glad I did.

Reading “Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain,” was touching, honest, & heart wrenching as we followed Ms. de Rossi’s life & her reasoning for the decisions made in her life. There are many people in the same place as Ms. de Rossi, choosing to live by society’s standards & not accepting how they were born. I am one who has had trouble accepting myself, perhaps not in the same way as Ms. de Rossi, yet just as painful. Reading this book helped me to look deep within myself and evaluate my choices. Many of my own choices were made based on my understanding of what was expected of me from family, friends, and my Christian beliefs. From simple decisions such as, how I vote to whom I accept into my social circles. As a child, and even into my adult years, I found ways to dislike myself and learned ways to be accepted. All it takes is just being you, nothing more and nothing less.

The book, “Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain,” was well written and made you feel as if you were in Ms. de Rossi’s shoes as she went through her life experiences. I appreciated how she shared her experiences, yet didn’t impose her life decisions on her readers. She spoke sensibly and straight to the point. She explained her confusion and her lack of acceptance very clearly. She also shared how love and support from friends and family helped to find her inner strength to succeed.

“Lover Eternal” by J.R. Ward

Once finishing J.R. Ward’s first book, “Dark Lover,” I had to jump off into the next. “Lover Eternal” is book two in this series, Black Dagger Brotherhood.

As I stated in my review of “Dark Lover,” the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, written by J.R. Ward, is about an ancient order of warrior vampires who defend and protect their race from vampire slayers known as lessers. These lessers are de-souled humans, recruited by an evil supernatural being known as the Omega. There are six warriors in the Brotherhood who stand between the extinction of their vampire race and the Lessening Society.

In this series, the author creates a vampire race, which is separate from the human race. In fact, to be a vampire, one must be born with vampire DNA. Vampires are born like humans, looking like humans, acting like humans, and in some cases, unaware of the changes the must go through in their mid-twenties, when their bodies go through dangerous changes. Surviving this transition, they must drink the blood of vampires of their opposite sex to survive. Living as vampires, they can drink any blood, human or animal, but to stay strong and live healthy, they must consume the blood of their opposite gender.

In this book, “Lover Eternal,” J.R. Ward brings to life the brother “Rhage,” also known as “Hollywood” to his friends. Rhage is the brother/vampire with the biggest appetite and he seems to be the best fighter of all the brothers. He has a dark side that lives inside him. The Scribe Virgin (the vampiric goddess of sorts), casts a curse on him that is to last two hundred years, a curse that forces him to live his life not feeling love. Sex and violence are his only means to keep the beast within him under control. When Rhage loses control, everyone around him takes cover as his beast bursts out and consumes every thing in sight. One day, Mary comes into his life and Rhage finds that he is drawn to Mary.

Mary is a human who suffers from leukemia again. Through circumstances brought in with other characters connected with Mary’s life, she meets Rhage. He’s handsome, strong, and he’s interested in her. She knows this time she will most likely die from her affliction. So now, she wonders if her life will end happily.

Mary is brave on so many levels. She fights for her on life, gets mixed in with the vampire race because of a secondary storyline within this book, and learns to understand the beast in Rhage.

I loved this story very much and in some ways felt, I could relate to Rhage the most. His constant battle with his own demons and the lack of control of his beast seemed to connect with me in many ways. It seemed that the more he pursued Mary, the more capable he was able to cope with his beast.

This book was a definite page-turner! It was dark with moments of sadness, yet a romantic sensual love story. J.R. Ward cleverly weaves a secondary storyline that introduces the next book in the series.

“Immortalis Carpe Noctem,” by Katie Salidas

Katie Salidas is, or I should say was, an unknown author to me. I have begun to follow numerous authors on twitter in the past months, but Ms. Salidas began to follow me first. I found her to be an excellent conversationalist, willing to chat at the drop of a, eh… tweet. She’s known on twitter as @QuixoticKatie… the name alone intrigued and caused me to watch her stream and what she posts.

Generally, new authors email me or tweet me to request that I read and review their books. Ms. Salidas never did this. She has promoted her books herself and with the affection that she whips up in her following. One day, I caught a random tweet where she was promoting, “Immortalis Carpe Noctem.” I browsed the link a couple of times, but honestly, I didn’t care for the cover. This is the truth. I did it… I judged a book by it’s cover!

I’m not sure exactly how the conversation came up but Ms. Salidas offered me a one time opportunity to download one of her books to read and review. I chose “Immortalis Carpe Noctem” because I really wanted to start the series at the beginning. Go figure.

I’m really hard on storylines. I have to tell myself that I have to read past the first couple of chapters, because quite honestly what I do is read the first chapter and if I’m not gripped in the storyline right there, I lay the book down and don’t pick it up again.

“Immortalis Carpe Noctem,” is written in first person and it is all the experiences of a young college aged woman who decides to walk home by herself in one of the roughest cities in America, Las Vegas. Of course, reading Alyssa’s point of view, she took us through her walk in the dark and introduced us first to her attackers who intended on raping, mugging, and killing her. They succeed at nearly killing her by stabbing her as she attempted to free herself. However, during her scuffle with her would be attackers, an ancient vampire named, Lysander, arrives just a little late to her rescue. Instead of taking her to a hospital to receive life saving skills from a doctor, he chooses instead to drain her further and then give her his blood thus turning her into a vampire.

At first, my thought was that this was just going to be another vampire love story. It wasn’t really. Actually, this author went one-step further. This whole story is Alyssa’s first hand experience of becoming a vampire and learning how to live as one in the twenty-first century. She has rules she must abide by, new senses to discover.

Ms Salidas kept with many, if not all, of vampire folklore. Her vampires can’t take sunlight, they live off of human blood, and of course they all have fangs.

So, what is my opinion of this story? I usually love any story that involves vampires. However, this story really didn’t have anything that different to it that would make me Oooh and Aah about it. There was no love triangle or for that matter a love affair. We do see Alyssa begin to fall for her maker, Lysander. They do have sex together… but aside from learning, what it would be like to experience vampirism first hand it was an okay start to a series. I am interested in reading the rest of the series. I feel there is great potential for Alyssa and this first book has laid a good foundation to springboard into the next book of a series. I would love to see what kind of a person Alyssa turns out to be.

This book was an awesome start to what I hope to be an excellent series. It definitely is worth the read. Let’s hit me with your next book, Ms Salidas.

You can find the link to Katie Salidas' web site in the left sidebar.

Press Release: "Forever Vampire" by Michele Hauf

Award-winner author Michele Hauf introduces a new kind of vampire—one with an undying need for revenge… Forever Vampire Michele Hauf ISBN: 978-0-373-77572-9 HQN mass market paperback April 19, 2011 "Hauf delivers excitement, danger and romance in a way only she can!" — #1 NYT bestselling author, Sherrilyn Kenyon on Her Vampire Husband. "Adventure, intrigue and a voice like no other— Michele Hauf is a force to be reckoned with!" — USA TODAY bestselling author, Emma Holly "Vampires, shifters, and faeries—oh my! Michele Hauf is a master of them all!" — NYT bestselling author, Kerrelyn Sparks

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Vail the Unwanted is a pure-blooded vampire. But raised in Faery, he has neither home nor peace, and when his aid is sought in the recovery of a priceless diamond gown, his price is information. Specifically the whereabouts of his accursed father. His goal is revenge, and the supernaturally sexy Lyric, the icy blond vampiress with whom he must work, is a distraction he can't afford.

Outwardly as cold as the diamond dress in which she was kidnapped, Lyric has her own secrets. Desperate to break free from her criminal family, she aligns herself with the brooding Vail. Together they seek justice while each secretly works for freedom and a fresh start. For Lyric that means, holding herself apart, even from the smoldering blue-eyed Vail. For Vail, it means a battle to the death for revenge—and for a temptress he can't deny.

MicheleHauf.com

blog.michelehauf.com

clubscarlet.michelehauf.com

Michele Hauf has been writing paranormal, historical and fantasy romance for over 20 years. Populated with vampires, angels, werewolves and more, her wickedly enchanting stories will appeal to today's paranormal readers. It's Twilight for big girls!

Reviewers, download an electronic review copy of FOREVER VAMPIRE at netgalley.com
Publicist: Megan Lorius
HQN Books
Megan_Lorius@Harlequin.ca
416-445-5860 (ext. 7189)

“Chosen” by P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast

Oh Man! This is a highly addictive series!

In this book, "Chosen," the heroine, fledgling vampyre, Zoey Redbird, finds that her friends have turned on her and she ends up turning to her sworn enemies for friendship. Her best friend, Stevie Rae, is undead and struggling with her humanity and Zoey doesn't have a clue how to help her. Now Zoey finds she's got three boyfriends, which can be a social disaster.

I was bothered by the fact that Zoey falls in love with her teacher and ends up having sex with him. I know this occasionally happens in real life and I know we don’t want to treat it like it should never be brought out of the closet. However, this is a YA (Young Adult) series. I do expect to read some language and sexual innuendo or perhaps tame sex scenes, but I don’t think things like this should be introduced as acceptable to our teens. The fact that she falls in love with just about every boy she makes contact with is grating, but it is a known fact with teens. Hormones are coursing through her veins.

Although I found a couple of points to take issue with in this series thus far, I did enjoy the overall story. The basic plot to the story focuses on a murder that happens on campus. This causes Zoey to move off campus where she attempts to save her best friend, Stevie Rae. Of course, Stevie Rae, now a red vampyre, seems to have lost her humanity, but Zoey can’t believe this to be true, and she makes it her goal to try to save her best friend.

Neferet is as evil as ever and we see what else she has to offer as she attempts to get rid of Zoey. I think out of all these characters, I truly love Aphrodite. She seems to put everything out there whether you want to hear it or not. Even in the most “Valley Girl,” “Rich Bitch” kind of way, Aphrodite holds no punches.

Again... a very addictive read! I couldn't and didn't put the book down until I was done!!

Now, if you have read the first two books of this series then this book is a must-read. However, if you are checking out the series as a mother or father of a teen who wants to read this, be cautioned there is adult content here… more than most other paranormal YA books.

“Betrayed” by P.C. Cast & Kristen Cast

After reading "Marked," there was only one thing I could do and that was to continue into the series by reading, "Betrayed."

Betrayed is the second installment in the House of Night series. It is dark and sexy, and was fantastic to read. It picks up where Marked left off.

Our heroine, Zoey Redbird, seems to be an anomaly among fledglings in the House of Night. She is the most powerful fledgling at the House of Night and quite possibly the most powerful in vampyre history. After taking over leadership of the Dark Daughters and Sons, she seems to be settling in nicely at the House of Night finishing school. She finally feels like she belongs. In this book, Zoey is determined to change things in the school, from a snobby elitist clique to something of substance, meaning. We begin to see Zoey feel comfortable in her own skin and she actually seems to mature a little.

Along with Zoey’s growing pains with learning to be the priestess that she seems to be training for, her love life seems to be a mess. She finds herself in love with two boys and one of her professors. Just when things begin to look up, trouble happens to the humans in her old life. They keep disappearing. Zoey must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart and her soul.

Once I started to read this book, I couldn't put it down. It was obvious how hooked I had become. I like how the Cast’s are developing the characters and how they seem to get along with each other in this series. Each character is beginning to grow into what they believe is their path in life. Even though I really like Zoey, I think I like Aphrodite and Stevie Rae a little better. They seem to be the most open and straight forward what’s happening throughout the book.

I find it odd that the Cast’s did not proofread their books though. I’m seeing a number of grammatical errors throughout the story. I can only hope they will see this in their future installations.

If you enjoy vampire stories, this is a good one. However, it is not like your typical vampire story. I think that is why I thoroughly enjoyed it.

You can visit the Cast's website to learn more about their other books in this series. http://www.houseofnightseries.com

“Amaury’s Hellion” by Tina Folsom

I finally found the time to read Tina Folsom’s book, “Amaury’s Hellion.” This book is the second installment to her Scanguards Vampires series. As I told Ms. Folsom after I had read her first book, “Samson’s Lovely Mortal,” I became fascinated with Amaury and really wanted to read more about him. When she told me that book two was all about him, I was ready to go.

Amaury LeSang is a vampire and part owner of Scanguards with his good friend Samson. He has a problem though. Amaury was cursed to feel everybody’s emotions. Now I used to think it would be really cool to be able to read another’s mind or, perhaps feel another’s emotions…but not at all like Amaury. His curse manifested in a constant migraine that could only be relieved through sex. At best, the sex would lift the pain only for about an hour. After that, he would get a rush of everyone’s emotions all over again and the migraine would resume.

As Scanguards is under the magnifying glass for murder/suicides allegedly caused by employees, Amaury, Samson, and the New York vampires put their wits together to figure out who-done-it. That is when Amaury meets the feisty human woman, Nina, who is out for vengeance for the death of her little brother. Of course, Nina’s blood boils for Amaury because she believes Amaury is the responsible one for her brother, Eddie’s death.

Amaury’s and Nina’s first meeting turns out to be more of surprise. Instead of killing Amaury as planned, Nina ends up kissing him. Of course, she’s trying to throw off his guard… and it does! Amaury realizes that in Nina’s presence, all his pain vanishes…and they haven’t had sex yet! With a cure seemingly within his reach, Amaury strives to hook up with Nina.

The story is an exciting love story with a touch of dom/sub flavor. Yes, Amaury doles out the spankings and Nina enjoys tying him up.

I must say that over all I loved this story. Amaury is a very caring vampire and loves Nina right off the bat and he’ll do anything to keep her safe. The story seemed well developed and easy to follow all the main characters. However, I did find some sections tended to go a little slow. Perhaps it was my desire to want more detail throughout the story. I would have loved to have read a little more of the dom/sub flavor.

Aside from my specific desires, and I know I’m tremendously finicky, Ms. Folsom has done another great job of carrying on the Scanguards Vampire series. I look forward to the third installation, “Gabriel’s Mate.”

"Ninja's Creed" (Movie)

Tonight I watched a movie I wish I hadn't. I really should have read the reviews first before watching this movie. The title is very misleading. It is called, "Ninja's Creed" & is rated PG-13.

In the beginning, even though it was clearly a low budget movie, I found it enjoyable. So much so that I searched the Internet to find out what book it was based on so I could read it. The only tidbit I found was another name the story had, which was "Royal Kill." The producer should have kept that name, then it would have made a little more sense.

This movie was very convoluted. At first you follow the movie where a warrior is sanctioned by a dying king to protect one of his daughters who was shuffled off to America to be raised by an "American Guardian." The movie timeline takes leaps where you are not sure how to connect the dots. You see the warrior supposedly locating the "princess" but not shown how. It's as if magically he knew where to go. You are shown a cold callous assassin who seemingly has some sort of martial arts training or some kind of mystical upbringing. The assassin apparently finds this "princess" at the same time our warrior does which again you are not offered a means to know how she found her target.

The "princess" is a scared shitless young teenage girl who doesn't know anything of her past. She is drug into this fiasco, led to believe that she may in fact be a princess, and begins to trust the warrior. She does what he says and hides whilst he turns to end the battle with the would-be assassin who mysteriously appears everywhere the warrior and girl go.

A sword fight begins between warrior and assassin... or so you are lead to believe. When the warrior finally slays the assassin, this is the point where everything goes off into right field and you haven't a clue what's happening.

Somehow, the assassin's dead body disappears and mystically becomes the warrior. There is some kind of magical osmosis that occurs binding the two into one thus apparently joining good with evil. Because this teen girl now trusts this warrior, she chooses not to run away. Stupid girl. Now the warrior turns on the girl (because the assassin is now inside the warrior) and he attacks and kills the girl.

Throughout the rest of this movie, you see the warrior struggle to only realize that he is just so joe who leads a boring life as a guard at a museum. Toward the end all I could understand was this man was no warrior at all but a psychopath who builds himself up to be something more than what he is, then looks for some teenage girl to live out his fantasy only to end up killing everyone around.

The music throughout the movie seemed more than it needed to be too. In fact, the music seemed too much for the whole movie. It gives the feeling that something big was going to happen and then nothing does.

This was really a stupid movie and a waste of 90 minutes that I will never get back. Why did I reserve this peace of garbage?

“Dark Lover” by J.R. Ward

I have read many vampire series of late, enjoying every one of them in their own way. One day, I was about to read the next book in another series, when friends who follow me on Twitter insisted I read J.R. Ward’s “Black Dagger Brotherhood” series. On several occasions, whispers of this series came across my timeline but were ignored, simply because I had so many other books slated to read. One day, I finally broke down, bought the first six books of the series, and began to read.

Many series novels that I have read, take more than just the first book to hook you into the story. Not this series…no, this series sucked me in on the first book! Drama, fighting, friendships, and just all out romance sucked me right in and catapulted me into the next book.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, written by J.R. Ward, is about an ancient order of warrior vampires who defend and protect their race from vampire slayers known as lessers. These lessers are de-souled humans recruited by an evil supernatural being known as the Omega. There are six warriors in the Brotherhood who stand between the extinction of their vampire race and the Lessening Society.

Author, J.R. Ward, creates a different type of vampire in these novels. These vampires are a separate species from humans. In fact, to be a vampire you must be born carrying vampire DNA in your blood. Ms. Ward’s vampire race begin their lives as human and are unaware of what lies ahead of them until their mid-twenties when their bodies go through a dangerous. Surviving the transition, they must now drink the blood of vampires of the opposite sex in order to survive and stay strong.

This book, “Dark Lover,” centers on Wrath, the only pure blood vampire known to exist on the planet, and Beth, a half breed, half human-half vampire, who is on the verge of transition. Wrath is asked to help with Beth’s transition when her time comes by feeding her from his vein. Wrath hates humans, tries to live a loners life, never desiring a mate. However, when Wrath’s long-time friend and the father of Beth is killed by car bombing lessers, Wrath takes on the responsibility of protecting Beth and introducing her to her vampire heritage.

The attraction between Wrath and Beth is tangible and quite erotic. The chemistry between them makes it impossible for them to deny their love for each other and for the first time, Wrath is hopeful to end the loneliness in his long life. All is bliss until the baby powder scented vampire-slaying lessers kidnap Beth.

Throughout the book we see the beautiful choreography of all the warriors as they work together to battle their race’s nemesis and later find and free Beth from her captor.

If vampires are your thing, as they are mine, then this series is a must read! Do what I did, lay down that seventeenth book in the series you are currently reading and begin the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

"Spirit Bound" by Richelle Mead

“Spirit Bound” is the fifth installment to Richelle Mead’s “Vampire Academy” series, of which I have been a dedicated reader since the beginning. It is not my top rated series, but it holds its own luster. After reading this book, it may have lost some of its shine with me.

I will not say that “Spirit Bound” was a bad book; on the contrary, it carried on the saga, if you will, of Rose Hathaway and Lissa Dragomir. If you have read Ms Mead’s other books in this series, then you must read this one. Perhaps your feelings on this will differ to mine. I hope so.

Many things happened in this book. Rose and Lissa graduated from St Vladimir’s Academy. They both broke into a high profile, well-protected prison and broke out a high profile prisoner. Through information gathered by Rose, Lissa saves, or heals, Dimitri from being Strigoi. Lissa’s courage and gift continue to grow. Relationships develop. However, with all that happens in this book, I felt like there was something missing.

As I read this book, I felt as if I was reading a report, something that Rose may have had to write for the guardians. The story held a fluidity of facts, which allowed you to follow the lives of each character. However, it did not draw me in by my emotions. The only thing keeping me turning the pages were the facts. I wanted to stay connected as best I could, to the characters in this story.

As I said, this read like a report or a retelling of a story. It lacked emotion in parts. There lacked any build up of tension or angst that we are so used to experiencing in this series. Some of the fight scenes seemed to lack description or follow through. There was no strong emotion relayed in the love triangle created with Rose, Adrian, and Dimitri. I kept wondering what kind of a pansy ass Adrian was to take a back seat with Rose. I also wondered why Rose and Dimitri did not either break down into a knock down, drag out fight between each other or a forgiving passionate love affair. Their passion seemed lost. All you really experience is a teen who must deal with rejection. Boohoo. Yes, I did cry when Dimitri spoke out some harsh words to Rose, leaving her to feel his rejection. And. yes, I really hoped that Rose and Adrian would just get it on and have sex. Instead, she did the one thing we have heard her say repeatedly that she would not do … “She would not become a blood whore.” So, instead of sex, she lets him drink her blood.

Finally, about the last few chapters, I felt some emotion, some angst. The ending did leave me wanting more.

I hope that in Ms. Mead’s next installment, “Last Sacrifice”, due out December 7, 2010, that she brings back more of the tense emotion and angst that the whole series holds.